This week's North East appointments

Your latest roundup of appointments from across the North East.

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Paul McGowan, Grainger plc

The UK’s largest listed residential landlord, Grainger plc, has appointed Paul McGowan as a new director land to head the company’s strategic land and land buying team.

McGowan is joining from BNP Paribas Real Estate where he was senior director, head of residential development consulting and agency. He has 25 years of experience in residential development in both land acquisition and disposal.

At Grainger, McGowan will be responsible for acquiring build-to-rent development sites for over 150 units.

Richard Carr, Work Discovery Sunderland

Work Discovery Sunderland has appointed Richard Carr, head of school at Sunderland’s Sandhill View Academy, as co-chair.

Work Discovery Sunderland is an initiative of Sunderland’s aiming to boost the city’s employability of young people.

Carr - who shares the chairmanship with Paul McEldon of North East BIC - is following in the footsteps of Howard Kemp, head of Farrington Community Academy, who has now retired.

Carr said: “I am a very strong advocate of raising the aspirations among students through Work Discovery Sunderland and its wide range of initiatives and opportunities.

“Work Discovery Sunderland is both important and unique. It is important to schools in that it enables a link and close working partnership between them and employers, along with professionals from a range of sectors.”

Paul McEldon said he was delighted that Richard had agreed to support the initiative, commenting: “Having the support of the schools is a vital part of Work Discovery Sunderland and Richard will be able to help us with that.

“He has already shown how passionate he is about what we do and he is going to be a huge asset to the organisation.”

Gareth Jones and Joanne Cowie, Tilly Bailey & Irvine

The commercial property business has appointed both Gareth Jones and Joanne Cowie.

Gareth has joined to head up the seven-strong commercial property team, based out of the office at Wynyard Business Park. He is a highly respected lawyer, and has acted for many local, regional and national clients on property portfolio management and property finance matters.

He said: “I am delighted to join Tilly Bailey & Irvine and am looking forward to further promoting and building on the impressive expertise within the team.”

Joanne has over 20 years of experience as a property lawyer in the North East, combining her commercial property work with her busy practice as a notary public.

Notaries are an entirely separate and independent branch of the legal profession and deal with verification of events, documents and facts for individuals and companies who have property, work, court proceedings and business in foreign jurisdictions across the world.

Joanne commented: “I am already seeing at first hand the significant benefit to clients of having a wide range of full-time commercial services available at our dedicated commercial office.

“The collaborative approach to finding solutions and progressing matters for clients is immediately apparent.”

Tony Buckley, Godfrey Syrett

The furniture designer and manufacturer has appointed Tony Buckley as an area sales manager, with the firm aiming to grow its market share in 2018 and beyond.

Buckley, who is 31 and from County Durham, is joining Godfrey Syrett from office supplies company, Quality Business Solutions, where he formerly held a sales executive role.

In his new role, he will be based at Godfrey Syrett’s Killingworth headquarters, taking on responsibility for growing existing business, whilst building long standing partnerships with new clients.

Commenting on his new appointment, Buckley said: “I relish this opportunity and look forward to becoming a successful part of the business.

“Godfrey Syrett offers a truly comprehensive solution for its customers, and being North East based myself, I am very proud to be working for a local company who are always pushing forward in the market.”

Marc Allison, Watson Burton

The commercial law firm has appointed Marc Allison to its corporate team, who will be providing corporate and commercial advice to the firm’s clients.

Allison is a recognised British Franchise Association (BFA) affiliated lawyer as well as an affiliate member of the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply.

Marc Allison said: “I am thrilled to have joined Watson Burton. The firm works with high calibre clients both regionally and nationally and I am looking forward to utilising my experience to provide them with the highest quality services and advice.”

Watson Burton delivers commercial legal services nationwide, with its core practice areas being corporate, employment, real estate, construction, professions and insurance and dispute resolution.

Duncan Reid, partner and national head of corporate at Watson Burton, said: “Marc has a breadth of invaluable expertise which is reinforced by the fact that he is the North East’s only BFA Affiliated Lawyer.

“I am delighted to welcome him to the team.”

Dave Cash, Hadrian Technology

The North East-based CCTV design, supply and installation company, Hadrian Technology, has appointed new training manager, Dave Cash.

Cash is an experienced training manager and security operative specialising in intruder systems, CCTV and access control. He has joined the Seaham-based company to oversee its employee training and accreditation.

With this appointment, Hadrian Technology - which this year was named in The Financial Times’ inaugural ranking of Europe’s fastest-growing businesses – is looking to expand its existing service offer.

Hadrian Technology’s co-founder, Gary Trotter, said: “The success we have achieved as a company in recent years is entirely thanks to the hard work and dedication of our team.

“As we continue to grow our business, we’re passionate about investing in our people and ensuring we continue to offer industry-leading knowledge and expertise.”

Commenting on his appointment, Cash said: “Hadrian Technology has an enviable track record as one of the UK’s leading security supply, installation and maintenance companies.

“I’m delighted to be joining the company at this exciting time and look forward to working with Gary and the rest of the team as we work to build on recent successes.”